[HN Gopher] Periodic Cooking of Eggs
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Periodic Cooking of Eggs
Author : Someone
Score : 43 points
Date : 2025-02-06 16:25 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
| camtarn wrote:
| > Eggs are ... the funniest and most versatile ingredients to
| work with
|
| Very odd and somewhat amusing phrasing - presumably due to
| translation error? I'm assuming they meant 'most enjoyable'
| rather than 'funniest'.
| novia wrote:
| HowToBasic on youtube disagrees.
| uxjw wrote:
| They may mean funny as in odd
| whycome wrote:
| Where do they imply that they think they're odd?
| whycome wrote:
| Yeah it's the first line in the intro and I can't think of an
| interpretation of "funniest" that works in the context.
|
| > Eggs are one of the most valuable foods on the tables of
| consumers and in the kitchens of chefs due to their abundant
| functional properties that make them the funniest and most
| versatile ingredients to work with.
| marssaxman wrote:
| The unwavering commitment to the thoroughness of the
| investigation really makes this bit work. "So you think this is a
| frivolous topic?" the authors seem to be saying; "well, let us
| show you just how seriously we can take it."
| 60secs wrote:
| I use a similar but simpler technique to cook eggs to a runny
| soft boiled by cracking eggs directly into a small quantity of
| boiling water. This sets the whites quickly but drops the
| temperature of the water before it can set the yolks. It's kind
| of like lazy poaching.
| CapeTheory wrote:
| A competing research team in France almost cracked the same
| problem - but their funding agency said Un Oeuf is Un Oeuf.
| ndsipa_pomu wrote:
| You should be ashamed and feel bad for that
| 486sx33 wrote:
| Oh cmon, you should can the negative comments and be ashamed
| of your negativity. Nothing wrong with a laugh
| lores wrote:
| It's the traditional appreciative answer to a terrible pun,
| and it's a great tradition!
| lores wrote:
| That's the kind of pun the guillotine was invented for.
| ortusdux wrote:
| "periodic eggs were placed alternatively in boiling water (Th =
| 100 degC) for th = 2 min and water at Tc = 30 degC for tc = 2
| min, for a total cooking time of 32 minutes, which corresponds to
| the repetition of the hot and cold cycles for a total of N = 8
| times. In the case of periodic eggs, a bowl filled with water
| kept at 30 degC was used for the cold cooking cycle."
|
| I might try this later. The image looks like a great ramen egg.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _eggs were placed alternatively in boiling water (Th = 100
| degC)_
|
| Well nuts, at my altitude water boils at 93oC. It doesn't
| appear there is a (known) closed-form solution to this problem,
| unfortunately :P.
| mrguyorama wrote:
| Clearly you should turn your kitchen into a gentle pressure
| vessel. It will make cooking so much easier.
|
| I think you could also just salt the water? That should raise
| the boiling temperature and hopefully it doesn't seep into
| the egg, though I think eggs can use some seasoning!
| ortusdux wrote:
| My rough calcs estimate you would need about 400mg of salt
| per ml of water to get a 7degC boiling point increase, but
| the max solubility of salt in 100degC water is 384mg/ml, so
| you might just get there with a supersaturated solution.
|
| Can sous-vide machines hold 100degC in oil?
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _you could also just salt the water?_
|
| Hmm, so to get a 12.5oF dT with water and NaCl we need
| about 6.7 mol salt per kg water [1]. That's almost 400
| g/kg, more than 10x the salinity of seawater.
|
| Pressure-vessel kitchen it is.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling-
| point_elevation#Ebulli... _i = 2, Kb = 0.93degF kg /mol_
|
| [a] _That 6.7 ml /kg is technically a molality, something I
| only point out because it's a silly-sounding word_
| sn9 wrote:
| Binary search your way to your values.
| kzrdude wrote:
| Also described in this newspaper
| https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/06/scientists-c...
| biomcgary wrote:
| The 8 cycles between boiling and room temp would be tedious
| without automation. I wonder if a similar outcome would be
| achieved by sous vide followed by boiling briefly to set the
| white, much like sous vide steak followed by searing.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _8 cycles between boiling and room temp would be tedious
| without automation_
|
| Sounds like there is room in the market for a periodic sous
| vide device. Can't get around pumps. But maybe it's a two-piece
| device, with a heating element for the hot tank (use your own
| pot)-- the user is responsible for putting ice in the cold talk
| (use your own pot)-- and a hoses and pump assembly to dump and
| drain to and from the cooking tank (use your own pot).
|
| I guess the tankless system _isn 't_ the MVP. A two-egg cooker
| is. Two tanks, one the user fills with ice, the other which
| contains a thermometer and heating element, and a small cooking
| tank with circulation and a powerful pump (expensive bit) to
| quickly dump and drain.
| SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
| Or a fryer basket style egg holder, that lifts the egg from
| tank to tank. Might be easier than trying to drain & refill
| the water.
| andrewflnr wrote:
| I'm guessing you'd make the "basket" out of soft silicone,
| to reduce the risk of breaking them. But I agree that's the
| general approach.
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| Another method is to mix the yolk and albumen within the shell,
| and hard boil that as normal. Then you get a hard boiled
| scrambled egg with no albumen/yolk divide.
|
| I do this by rapidly spinning the egg before cooking. Works well
| for my kids who always would eat the white but not the yolk, no
| matter what texture I got it.
| Isamu wrote:
| My HN premium tier subscription just paid for itself.
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